The Football Brainiacs

Image from Soonersports.com

No disrespect to Iowa State but they haven’t been the best defense statistically this year so we’re somewhat limited in what we can glean from the game. But a few thoughts did come to mind. And my apologies because these are going to be kind of all over the place. No real order:

– Yost and I talked during/after the game and he told me that he was really impressed with how pretty a ball Kendal Thompson throws. He said in warm-ups there was a discernible difference between Blake/Trevor throw vs. how nice and tight a spiral Kendal throws. Yost played WR at Oklahoma State and said Kendal was throwing the ball in a way that made him think if he only had the warm ups to go on he’d clearly want Kendal delivering the rock to him. Also, mentioned that Kendal just seemed to have moxie or a swagger about him.

– And just to follow up on Kendal, in the spring game his release wasn’t great and the ball just didn’t have much zip on it. But today he threw a ball that had a lot pace on it. Really seems to have progressed. And though the deep ball wasn’t perfect it was better than most of what we’ve seen from the other two QBs. The spiral was very tight.

– Was interesting to see Torrea Peterson get the start today. I liked him back when he played in San Antonio. I always felt like he had the best get off of any of the DTs we recruiting around that time. He’s been showing that but he’s really more of a 1 gap player and would probably be very effective as a 1 gap player. But he continues to get better even though he’s playing a very difficult position. With another offseason of work in the S&C program he could be pretty good player for us next year. Again, Coach Montgomery proving his worth. And let me tell you that Coach Montgomery isn’t just a great coach he is a class act.

– A side note to follow up on the point above about what a good guy Coach Montgomery is; my roommate in grad school played on the D-line with him at Iowa and he and his family sing his praises. Said he was a great young man and leader even as a young guy. And I can tell you that the HS coaches we speak to REALLY like him. He doesn’t BS the kids like some other coaches. That’s how you get the RIGHT kids for your program.

– You know what’s scary about Striker? He continues to get better in pass coverage. He was legit in pass coverage in HS. Could turn his hips. He’s really developing in that area. They continue to expand his role and he’s going to be very complete when he leaves here. I almost wonder if he can’t be that Swiss army knife/do-it-all safety like a Troy Polamalu.

– Wade was owning Iowa States center. Boy it’s going to be nice having all that quality depth at NG next year. They’ll also have another year to mix in some new fronts/techniques.

– Great to see Coach Heupel start us out with a TE. For so long now we’ve always been almost exclusively 10 personnel. And we also started to the game 4 wide. We wanted to come out and pass and pass and hurry and hurry. As a football fan the fact that our first offensive play was 11 personnel was nice.

– Everyone knows it but just have to say wow Gabe Ikard is athletic.

– Cortez has the fluidity to play corner. I don’t have any doubt about that. His issue right now is just comfort in what he’s doing. He looks hesitant when he has a run assignment. And is tentative in how he plays his coverage some times. But he can seamlessly flip his hips and run. He got more comfortable as the game went on. We could be really stacked with cover guys next year.

– It’s amazing watching us take injuries and despite that Coach Mike just sends new players in and they play! And we’re talking inexperienced guys, freshman, whatever. Like I said earlier Iowa State isn’t a great offensive team but still have to credit the defensive staff for getting these guys ready.

– Finch is so much more physical than you’d expect from a guy his size.

– Dom Alexander just looks so much more comfortable. The young man still just needs to learn how to use his athleticism in space against OL and when he can blow a play up by spilling a runner and when he needs to give ground and maintain leverage. But really love seeing his growth. He’s going to be good.

– In this defense we’re going to have to be find a way to be more physical in the run game at the nickel position and also get a pass rusher from that spot.

– Knight is just a ball of energy. The thing you notice about him is even if he makes mistakes he leaves you with that general feeling that he’s going to get better and better with time. In other words you feel like he has a high ceiling even if he makes a poor decision and that gives you a lot of optimism. One of the things you love is that he makes his decisions quick. Makes the job on the O-line easy. If he doesn’t see what he wants he won’t bounce around staring down a receiver hoping he’ll come open. He’ll grab 4-5 yards or whatever is there and move on to the next play. And the threat he gives OU in the run game is enough to offset any strengths that Bell might have over him (which are currently little to none).

– Rule for us should be: if you’re going throw a fade route; you might as well run the ball because at this point we aren’t going to hit a fade route. Its a wasted down.

– Damien is so good when he one cuts and gets north and south. So many times this year he’s just tried to do too much.

– Ahmad Thomas had a great open field tackle. Showed his ability to break down, change direction and then be physical in the form tackle.

– Saw another couple plays under center this week. So pretty to me. That’s two weeks in a row we’ve seen it. One of these days we’ll have to do a post about some of the advantages going under center gives you especially in terms of the ability to disguise what you’re doing.

– How awesome was it to see the TE TD? I loved it and you can see how dangerous that is with someone like Kendal on the PA because Kendal’s running ability forces the opposing teams to choose whether they want to scrape a backer/safety over the top to help in the QB run game keep, respect the TE pass or get extra help on the inside run.

– Most of you probably read our little post about Dakota Austin last week. How perfect was it that this weekend he’d come in and get an INT? And just watching him when the ball wasn’t thrown towards – he has great feet. He plays that deep technique and transitions into a back pedal beautifully. And boy he came up and laid a hit! In the little I saw of him he just looked very comfortable. In case you missed it, here is the post we put up about him last week: https://thefootballbrainiacs.com/?p=1017

– Saw Derek Farniok towards end of the game. Had a great down block. He also looks much bigger. I’m sure JY is going to break down every nuance of those few moments 🙂

I don’t know how Trevor or Kendal will look against better defenses but I’m definitely curious to see more of them. Maybe it’s because I’m born and bred Okie and I love seeing Okies succeed but after seeing all that zip Kendal had on the ball I’m much more intrigued by him as a prospect than perhaps I was after the spring game. Really curious to see what he can do against teams like K. State and OSU. Not sure he will get a chance but it’ll definitely be interesting to see if Bell loses his starting spot.